Happy New Year! Wishing you all an amazing, happy and incredible reading year! I figured that the first post of the new year should be a list of my most anticipated reads of 2021! Of course, this is probably a list of book that have been annouced up till August. So, I might do another one in June/July! However, the amount of books that are coming out this year actually makes me so happy. I’ve split this up into Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction and Young-Adult Fiction.
Adult Fiction
The Prophets – Robert Jones Jr
Release Date: 5th January 2021
In this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr. blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity.
The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love – away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs – where they can be alone together.
But, Amos – a fellow slave – has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul’s gospel, he betrays them.
Luster – Raven Leilani
Release Date: 21st January 2021
Edie is just trying to survive. She’s messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office, is sleeping with all the wrong men, and has failed at the only thing that meant anything to her, painting. No one seems to care that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing with her life beyond looking for her next hook-up. And then she meets Eric, a white, middle-aged archivist with a suburban family, including a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscape of sexual and racial politics as a young black woman wasn’t already hard enough, with nowhere else left to go, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric’s home and family.
Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson
Release Date: 4th February 2021
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists – he a photographer, she a dancer – trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.
Castles From Cobwebs – J.A. Mensah
Release Date: 18th February 2021
Imani is a foundling. Rescued as a baby and raised by nuns on a remote Northumbrian island, she grows up with an ever-increasing feeling of displacement. Full of questions, Imani turns to her shadow, Amarie, and her friend, Harold. When Harold can’t find the answers, she puts it down to what the nuns call her “greater purpose”. At nineteen, Imani answers a phone call that will change her life: she is being called to Accra after the sudden death of her biological mother. Past, present, faith and reality are spun together in this enthralling debut. Following her transition from innocence to understanding, Imani’s experience illuminates the stories we all tell to make ourselves whole.
Who’s Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour – Sareeta Domingo
Release Date: 4th March 2021
A stunning collection of short stories from some of the UK’s most talented established and emerging writers, celebrating love and desire in all its guises, written by and reflecting the experiences of women of colour.
Forbidden love. Lost love. Unrequited love. Love so powerful that it can transcend countries, continents and even the boundaries of time. In this extraordinary collection, authored by some of the best storytellers working in the UK today, writers reflect on love and desire in all its many forms.
WHO’S LOVING US? LET US SHOW YOU…
Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi
Release Date: 4th March 2021
As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two – and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.
Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother’s life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family’s story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.
Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev – Dawnie Walton
Release Date: 20th April 2021
An idol of Afro-punk. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever.
Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together.
In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially Black women, who dare to speak their truth.
Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter, but as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens everything.
The Other Black Girl – Zakiya Dalia Harris
Release Date: 1st June 2021
Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of book publishing.
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and the micro-aggressions, she’s thrilled when Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events cause Nella to become Public Enemy Number One and Hazel, the Office Darling.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realises that there is a lot more at stake than her career.
Adult Non-Fiction
How to Save it: Fix Your Finances – Bola Sol
Release Date: 7th January 2021
Fixing your finances starts with facing your finances.
This indispensable guide will help you confront the awkwardness of having conversations about your money and what to do with it.
In seven accessible chapters’ financial wellness guru Bola Sol, will guide you through all your money essentials – from saving, to budgeting, dealing with your debt, building your credit, and taking your first steps to investing
Packed with practical tips and straightforward advice, this is the book that will change your relationship with money for the better.
Black Girl Finance – Selina Flavius
Release Date: 21st January 2021
We don’t like thinking about money, do we? We think maths, we think spreadsheets, we think boring. But Selina Flavius, founder of Black Girl Finance, wants to show that there can be another, better way. A way to start making our hard-earned money work even harder for us.
Selina Flavius created Black Girl Finance to address the unique difficulties Black women face due to the gender and ethnicity pay gaps. Since we literally can’t afford to wait for change, we need to start changing things up for ourselves. From challenging money mindsets to teaching key skills, such as how to set up an emergency fund and where to start with budgeting, investing and saving, Black Girl Finance provides a safe space for a community of unapologetic, ambitious, money-minded women to get real about their finances.
Kick-start your financial journey with Black Girl Finance – the first financial guide of its kind. Packed with tips, tricks and tools, as well as statistics, personal stories, goal-setting exercises and straight-talking advice, this will be your go-to helping hand when it comes to making your financial goals a reality.
This is Why I Resist – Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
Release Date: 21st January 2021
This book is the hard conversation we must have.
In 2020 we have seen clearer than ever that Black people are still fighting for the right to be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin. In the words of the author, “there is no freedom without rights and no rights without the freedom to exercise those rights.”
This book demands change, because Black people are done waiting.
In This Is Why I Resist activist and political commentator, Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu digs down into the deep roots of racism and anti-blackness in the UK and the US. Using real life examples from the modern day, Dr Shola shows us the different forms racism takes in our day-to-day lives and asks us to raise our voice to end the oppression. She delves into subjects not often explored such as racial gatekeepers, white ingratitude, performative allyship (those black squares on Instagram), current identity politics and abuse of the Black trans community.
Where other books take White people by the hand to help them negotiate issues of race, This Is Why I Resist offers no sugar-coated comfort, instead it challenges and asks WHEN will White people progress on race inclusion. Black Lives Matter and change is now.
Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home – Nikesh Shukla
Release Date: 4th February 2021
How do you find hope and even joy in a world that is racist, sexist and facing climate crisis? How do you prepare your children for it, but also fill them with all the boundlessness and eccentricity that they deserve and that life has to offer?
In Brown Baby, Nikesh Shukla explores themes of racism, feminism, parenting and our shifting ideas of home. This memoir, by turns heartwrenching, hilariously funny and intensely relatable, is dedicated to the author’s two young daughters, and serves as an act of remembrance to the grandmother they never had a chance to meet. Through love, grief, food and fatherhood, Shukla shows how it’s possible to believe in hope.
Sista Sister – Candice Brathwaite
Release Date: 8th July 2021
Candice Brathwaite’s much-anticipated second book about all the things she wishes she’d been told when she was young and needed guidance.
Sista Sister is a compilation of essays about all the things Candice wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young Black girl growing up in London. From family and money to Black hair and fashion, as well as sex and friendships between people of different races, this will be a fascinating read that will have another profound impact on conversations about Black Lives Matter.
Written in Candice’s trademark straight-talking, warm and funny style, it will delight her fans, old and new.
Keep the Receipts: Three Women, Real Talk, No Filter – The Receipts Podcast
Release Date: 8th July 2021
This book is all the conversations and advice you’ve had in the club toilet, finally in one place.
Crying over that situationship and needing someone to remind you you’re a bad bitch?
In a dilemma with your friends and not sure the best way forward?
Can’t figure out how to dump the boyfriend who has never made you orgasm?
The Receipts girls have got you!
Join your girl Tolly T, Audrey, formerly known as Ghana’s Finest, and your mamacita Milena Sanchez as they get super honest about their life experiences and lessons. From their different approaches to love to their wise advice on building strong friendships; from those conversations about sex we never have, to how to enjoy life as a Black woman or a woman of colour, The Receipts girls always keep it real, authentic and fiercely funny.
This book is a celebration of the wonderful messes, mistakes, successes, highs and lows of three audacious women who are still trying to get it right and live their best lives.
It’s time to normalise women sharing things with zero judgement, to embrace women for all their flaws and differences and to realise being completely yourself is the best thing you could possibly be.
Young-Adult Fiction
Concrete Rose – Angie Thomas
Release Date: 12th January 2021
With his King Lord dad in prison and his mom working two jobs, seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter helps the only way he knows how: slinging drugs. Life’s not perfect, but he’s got everything under control. Until he finds out he’s a father…
Suddenly it’s not so easy to deal drugs and finish school with a baby dependent on him for everything. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. But when King Lord blood runs through your veins, you don’t get to just walk away.
The Gilded Ones – Namina Forna
Release Date: 4th February 2021
The must-read epic fantasy of 2021, as featured on Cosmo, Buzzfeed, BookRiot and Refinery 29. In this West African-inspired world, girls are outcasts by blood and warriors by choice, perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Black Panther.
Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in Otera, a deeply patriarchal ancient kingdom, where a woman’s worth is tied to her purity, and she must bleed to prove it. But when Deka bleeds gold – the colour of impurity, of a demon – she faces a consequence worse than death. She is saved by a mysterious woman who tells Deka of her true nature: she is an Alaki, a near-immortal with exceptional gifts. The stranger offers her a choice: fight for the Emperor, with others just like her, or be destroyed..
Descendants of the First – Reni K Amayo
Release Date: 30th March 2021
Descendants of the First is the thundering sequel to Reni Amayo’s epic YA fantasy, Daughters of Nri. Amayo takes us back to the ancient kingdom of Nri. Read my review of Daughters of Nri – HERE
With the king dead, the reunited twin goddesses must now face mythical beasts, a volatile resurgence of lost gods & unseen enemies as they fight to stop the Nri from succumbing to a looming curse. Deep cracks are forming throughout the kingdom of Nri with whispers of deadly successors lurking beneath the shadows. Despite having the same face, it seems the deepest crack is forming between Naala and Sinai, the reunited twin goddesses, who must put their differences aside as they travel through a broken Nri.
Unbeknownst to the girls, their use of the mystical Ndu crystal has awakened mythical beasts and the lost gods, each returning to Nri one by one. One thing is clear, the twins will have to face enemies at every corner of the kingdom… one of whom lies hidden amongst those they hold dearest. As ongoing turmoil spreads throughout the kingdom, the daughters of Nri must unmask the true face of their enemy, as they discover that their unique blood has marked them with magic strong enough to restore true peace to the world – a task only they can complete. But with beasts lurking far and wide, will they be able to do so before the kingdom succumbs to its looming curse?
Witches Steeped in Gold – Ciannon Smart
Release Date: 20th April 2021
Divided by their order. United by their vengeance.
Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom–and vengeance.
Jazmyne is the Queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.
Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But power is intoxicating, revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain–except the lengths they will go to win this game.
Ace of Spades – Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Release Date: 10th June 2021
Hello, Niveus High. It’s me. Who am I? That’s not important. All you need to know is…I’m here to divide and conquer. – Aces
Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light.
Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public.
Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.
Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…
A Psalm of Storms and Silence – Roseanne A Brown
Release Date: 10th June 2021
The final book to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. Find my review of the first book – HERE
Karina lost everything after a violent coup left her without her kingdom or her throne. Now the most wanted person in Sonande, her only hope of reclaiming what is rightfully hers lies in a divine power hidden in the long-lost city of her ancestors.
Meanwhile, the resurrection of Karina’s sister has spiraled the world into chaos, with disaster after disaster threatening the hard-won peace Malik has found as Farid’s apprentice. When they discover that Karina herself is the key to restoring balance, Malik must use his magic to lure her back to their side. But how do you regain the trust of someone you once tried to kill?
As the fabric holding Sonande together begins to tear, Malik and Karina once again find themselves torn between their duties and their desires. And when the fate of everything hangs on a single, horrifying choice, they each must decide what they value most—a power that could transform the world, or a love that could transform their lives.
This Poison Heart – Kalynn Bayron
Release Date: 6th July 2021
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
Endgame – Malorie Blackman
Release Date: 5th August 2021
Read my review for Noughts & Crosses – HERE
Read my review for Knife Edge – HERE
It is 20 years in 2021 since Malorie Blackman’s groundbreaking series began with Noughts & Crosses, which charted the deeply forbidden romance between Sephy (a Cross) and Callum (a nought) – a love affair which had repercussions for their families for generations.
Endgame, the breathtaking conclusion to the series, influenced by the unprecedented global events of recent years, is full of twists and turns and emotions, with its incredible characters reaching a dramatic conclusions to their stories.
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